


Borrowed time

by aries_taurus



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 7.18, 7.25, Angst, Episode Tag, Friendship, Gen, Whump, spoilers for the finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 05:27:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10892646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aries_taurus/pseuds/aries_taurus
Summary: I won't put a summary for those who haven't seen the finale. Starts off after the end of 7.18 and ties in to the finale. Tag to 7.18 because of course, there needed to be whump there.





	Borrowed time

**Author's Note:**

> I SAY AGAIN, SPOILERS FOR THE FINALE. 
> 
> Man. Ow, my heart!!!! 
> 
> I am glad though that they didn't pretend that 7.18 didn't happen and had no consequences. But.... STEVE!!!
> 
> No beta, couldn't wait to get it out there, so it's all my fault.

* * *

 

 

The sheer number of helicopters, rescue personnel, military uniforms and bomb techs that show up in the minutes following the blast kind of awes Danny.

All in all, it takes about ninety minutes but there’s suddenly a tent village set up in the valley and about fifty people milling about, all sorts of uniforms running around them. He’s more than eager to hand over the uranium canister and he doesn’t mind one bit if his clothes get burned as he and Steve go through the field tents set up for decontamination.

They get separated halfway through, for privacy’s sake, but not for long. They end up in the same helo heading for Tripler: they need to run some tests, make sure they didn’t get their ears damaged in the blast, make sure there isn’t any internal bleeding they can’t feel yet.

His ears are still ringing so even with the headset; he can’t really talk to Steve, that is, if the man was even paying him any sort of attention.

He isn’t. He’s got his eyes closed, head pressed back against his seat and he looks tense and his skin looks grey under the layer of sweat and dirt.

Danny nudges the medic that’s sitting next to him and points his chin at his partner.

“Is he okay?” he asks, keying the mike on his headset.

He can’t make out the answer, his ears still whistling, but the medic unclips his harness and crosses over to Steve’s side, taking vitals as soon as he gets there.

His partner opens his eyes and speaks with the medic before looking over at him, giving him a slow thumbs-up and a tired smile. The medic hands Steve a bottle of water and turns to him, handing him one too, a reassuring smile on his face. He hears crackling in his ears and he thinks he can make out the words fine, don’t worry so he relaxes into his seat. What a shit day.

They get deposited on the roof at Tripler and they get a priority through the ER. He doesn’t see Steve for a while, not until he gets released with orders to take it easy. He escaped the whole ordeal with mild acoustic trauma, no concussion. He goes around hunting for his missing parner, eventually finding him with Dr. Cornett.

They’re just finishing up when he walks in and Steve smiles. “You go the all clear?”

“I did. What about my partner, doc, he all good?” he asks Cornett.

“Acoustic trauma, no concussion. Bloodwork looks okay. We’ll keep an eye on it to make sure the radiation exposure didn’t have an effect but there’s no way to know for sure. It’s been a few hours and he’s not showing any symptoms so I’d say he’s damned lucky. Again.”

“I told him I didn’t want to give him his liver back, doc,” Steve says, smiling. “Am I good to go?”

“Yes. You know what to watch out for. Be safe, Commander. While I do appreciate what you do to keep the Island safe…”

“Roger that, Doc. Loud and clear.”

They find Lou waiting for them, leaning on the hood of his truck, a big smile on his face and a cigar in his mouth. They gat backslaps and congratulations and Lou’s damned proud, that’s for sure. It’s almost scary to see Steve beam at him. To think these two started out wanting to kill each other. Danny can only shake his head. He thinks the Island must have a way of making people crazy and that somehow, he’s immune.

It takes about five seconds for a team dinner to get organized at Steve’s, (of course, _Steve’s._ Like Danny didn’t see that one coming a mile away, right. Uh huh) and Danny’s cooking because you talk the talk so you gotta walk the walk, Steve figures.

That’s not a problem and Danny will gladly make him eat his words, in the most literal sense. They swing by his place to pick up Charlie as well as his stash of secret ingredients, swing by the grocery store and head over to, well, Steve’s.

After all, there’s nothing like cooking a good, plentiful family meal to forget an awful, stressful day.

He cheats a little on the _antipasti_. Bottled olives, store bought meats and cheeses (he’s keeping the fact he can actually _make_ Mozzarella a secret for now) but he did have _caponata_ in his freezer thank goodness. Prosecco makes it an official celebration.

 _Rigatoni Pomodoro_ as a primo, meatballs and _Insalata mista_ for the _Seconodo, Tiramisù_ as _Dolce_ and he has _Grappa_ for the _Digestivo_. They’ll skip the _Fromaggio e frutta_ as a whole. It’s just too hot for the cheeses and they’ve already had some with the _antipasti_.

It goes superbly well and Steve looks incredibly pleased. He eats like the barn animal that he is but his smile is worth it. He might not let go of the stupid name, but he’s happy, relaxed and the horrific day they’ve had is fading into memory.

Until both he and Lou end up on the lanai with devastated looks on their faces.

He gives his partner a questioning look but Steve shakes his head, mouthing ‘later’ at him. So he shrugs and finishes his meatballs before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Dinner progresses well but they don’t linger. Chin and Kono know something’s up and they manage to get the rest of the crew out of the house quickly, pretexting it still being a school night, everyone having to work the next day.

The Shrimp Cousins take Charlie home to Rachel’s, while Danny sticks around to clean up the kitchen.

Once the door closes behind the three guests and Danny’s son, the team sits in the living room, all eyes on Steve.

“So. What was that phone call about?” Chin asks.

Steve’s eyes drop to the floor, and his expression darkens. “K&L Construction was hired to execute some renovation work across from the Palace tomorrow, around the time of the Governor’s speech. It seems that she, Five-0 and HPD were the targets of the dirty bomb.”

The revelation is met with stony silence. They all know what this means. They all know what questions this whole mess leaves unanswered; who, and mainly why.

“Look,” Steve says after a beat, “we all know we need to find out who and why but that won’t happen tonight. Get some rest. Go home to your families. I’ll meet with the governor first thing tomorrow and we’ll start fresh then.”

Everyone nods and Lou, Chin and Kono are out the door in moments, but he sticks around. He’ll clean up the mess and hang with Steve; the kids are at Rachel’s. He has no desire to spend the rest of the night alone. He doesn’t want to think about how close they came to getting blown to bits, just over five hours ago.

“You don’t have to stay, Danny,” Steve grumbles behind him, as they watch the tail lights of Lou’s truck disappear down the street.

“You really want to clean up by yourself, babe? Besides, I don’t feel like going home to brood by myself, making doomsday scenarios in my head, trying to guess who wants us dead bad enough to kill half the island along with us.”

Steve shrugs. “Yeah, you got a point. C’mon. Faster we get the dishes out of the way, faster we can… we can hit that Grappa again.”

Danny frowns, giving Steve a curious look, noticing how he just tripped over his words. “You okay, babe?”

“Yeah. Just tired, I guess. Long day.”

“Yeah.”

 

/-/-/-/-/

 

Steve doesn’t think anything more than he overdid it, when he wakes up at two in the morning to puke up Danny’s wonderful Italian dinner. He figures he ate too much and drank too much wine and too much Grappa. His new liver’s a bit capricious after all.

It happens again, three times in the next week. He starts to get concerned when he gets bloody diarrhea and dizzy spells in the week after that.  After almost passing out after getting out of bed, he figures he needs to get this… whatever this is, checked out.

He makes an appointment with his doctor the next day, while Danny’s away with his kids.

 

He doesn’t know why he does that, why he goes behind his back. Maybe it’s because he already knows the cause of all this. That fucking uranium.

 

He hates being right.

He sits numbly in front of the doctor’s desk, hearing the words like they’re being said to someone else.

Radiation poisoning.  Moderate level.

Long term consequences.

High risk of cancer.

It's like it isn't really happening, like it isn't real, only it is.

 

He takes the prescription for Prussian blue and walks out of the hospital and back to his office, back to his life. 

He doesn’t tell anyone. There’s no reason. There’s nothing to worry about now, nothing anyone can change, nothing to be done.

He can only keep going, and hope for the best.

Except now, he’s the one on borrowed time.

The only thing he can do is make the best of it.

 

Fin

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, I think they're preparing AOL's exit with this. I hate it. For me, there's no Five-0 without AOL. But... he said he won't do another season after 8. So, they need to have an exit plan for him, if the show gets picked up for a season 9. Or a reason to park him behind a desk, if they can convince AOL to stay on. My 2 cents worth anyway. I did love the carguments. I loved the Steve/Danny moment at the end. Good ep overall.
> 
> So, how'bout the fic?


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